Friday, July 25, 2008

The struggle of hope over experience

There's a new movie in the theaters this week: THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE.

Interesting title. I WANT TO BELIEVE that this movie won't suck, but prior experience leads me to believe otherwise. The final three seasons were a huge let down over the brilliance that was the first few seasons, and the prior movie released left me -- and many other fans of the show -- feeling rather unfulfilled.

So what leads X-Philes (not sure I'm one of those, but I did enjoy the heck out of the series -- for a while) to believe that this won't be another wasted effort? Sure, Dave and Gillian are in it, but it's not like either has done anything of significance in the last six years, so star-power won't help. Yes, Chris Carter wrote it... but he wrote the last stink-bomb, too. The main difference I can see this time is that Chris is directing, too. Good. But he only directed a handful of shows from the series, and many of them were post-golden years.

Sure, I'll take the cynic label. I'll also grant that I'm being unfair to something I've not seen. But that's the point. I'm rarely a good model consumer, but in this case, I know that my viewpoint isn't that far off from many others. Yes, we want to believe this movie won't blow, but sorta like the desire to have aliens walking among us that can be killed with a sharp spike to the base of the net, it's probably fiction, too. I just don't think it will, and the studio didn't do jack-squat to convince me otherwise.

Of course, I could be proven wrong. And after several days or maybe a week, enough positive news could come from those I trust to get me to go try the movie out. But by then, the "blockbuster" time will have passed and the masses will have moved on to the next movie-of-the-week. Too bad. I think a non-traditional outreach program would have benefited this movie. Yes, I'm thinking Snakes on a Plane. But before you poo-poo my thought, think of how poorly that movie would have done WITHOUT the groundswell. And I still like it, so there.

4 comments:

  1. It's interesting you mention the missed outreach program. I just noticed that this movie is coming out today - I had seen 0 buzz around it on the Internet at all. I was a big fan back in the day, but like you I didn't enjoy the later seasons or the first movie. I think the studios have blown a big opportunity to engage and interest another generation, perhaps paving the way for other X-File films or media. But right now, it seems to me that this film is just being dropped into theatres without any fanfare. It will be interesting to see how it does.

    By the way, I liked Snakes on a Plane as well. Entertaining as hell.

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  2. So did you see it? I want to know if it is worth seeing in the cinema - or should I wait for it to be on cable....

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  3. Haven't heard anything that might change my mind. Going in the Netflix queue.

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  4. Um. Overall, it did indeed suck. It was nostalgic and all, which is cool. But it was a poorly stretched out minor episode of the old show. Not worth the theater experience.

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